Youth Coalition releases SDG 5 Policy Brief for International Women’s Month

For Women’s Month, the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety released their Policy Paper for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 which establishes the connection between gender equality and road safety and sustainable mobility. The paper was written by some of the SDG Champions of the Youth Coalition which include Laura Daniela Gómez from Colombia, Olufunke Elizabeth Afesojaye from Nigeria, and Valeria Bernal Castillo from Colombia. 

The SDG 5 Policy Brief talks about the lack of gender-responsive planning and implementation around mobility systems that prevent gender equality. It also explains how this issue jeopardizes the achievement of SDG 3.6: halving the number of road-related deaths and injuries by 2030.

Apart from discussing the targets mentioned in the 2030 Agenda for road safety and other areas of development, the policy brief also highlights the realities girls and women face while navigating through transport systems not built for them. The brief highlights data that reveal how disproportionately affected women are, not just in access to mobility but in how they are affected if they are ever involved in a road crash. 

“Women are the majority users of public transport worldwide and they can often be at risk of sexual harassment while using public transport.  This hinders their access to mobility options and hence, impacts their quality of life”. 

The policy brief seeks to highlight how the lack of road safety and safe mobility is also a gender issue that requires gender-responsive and transformative planning to protect and ensure equal access to all genders. 

Members of the Youth Coalition and other leaders from around the world can use the SDG 5 Policy Brief as an advocacy tool to engage with decision-makers in an effort to make transportation more inclusive for all genders. 

In a panel with the International Transport Forum (ITF) held during International Women’s Day (8 March), YOURS - Youth for Road Safety Communications Manager Maolin Macatangay shared some insights from the policy brief during a panel that discussed whether the global community is on track to meet SDG 3.6 with respect to issues around gender. 

She touched on how road crashes and mobility affect women differently from men, highlighting important statistics that point to the negative effect road crashes have on the female population, not just in terms of health but also in terms of economics and opportunities. 

To learn more about gender and road safety, check out our Policy Brief for SDG 5: Gender Equality!